INNOCENT POSSUM'S PICKS:

INNOCENT POSSUM'S PICKS:

• Map knowledge is key in this game, it's a constant game of cat and mouse. Offline mode is a perfect place to learn maps with 0 risk of losing your gear or getting one tapped by a fully geared player. I would personally recommend fully learning Factory and Customs first as you will spend most of your time on these maps.
• LEARN SCAV SPAWNS, scavs have set spawn patterns which could make or break a run if you're injured without meds or completely unprepared for a fight
• There are some great community made maps online that include extracts, loot spawns, and callouts (for all of you group players out there) check them out and try to get a general sense of each map, I'll link them down below.
• In this game movement another huge factor, running around sounds like a T-Rex walking and gives your position away to anyone in the vicinity, while walking makes you a slower easy target to kill, mixing these up and moving into areas of cover creates confusion for the enemy to keep guessing what your next move is going to be. This all ties back to map knowledge and knowing how to get around your enemies or trying get a new angle to keep them on their toes and give you the advantage.
• If you hold down your crouch key and use the scroll wheel you can fine tune your crouching position, this could help to get that perfect shot or keep you in cover but not fully crouched.
• Throwing a grenade while using the blind fire keys with a weapon (default ALT+S for left side/ALT+W for overhead)will allow the player to toss a grenade down a corridointo a room without exposing themselves to gunfire.

• Ammo- Igolnik, M995, BP, AP 6.3, M61 and SNB/7N1 are your best bet for having a fighting chance against players wearing high tier armor. Just because you're not wearing armor doesn't mean you're doomed to die. One well placed shot makes all the difference in this game and the proper ammo can turn a fight into your favor. All of this ammo can be purchased on the flea market if you don't have the trader rep to purchase it from them (Here's a quality ammo chart courtesy of u/NoFoodAfterMidnight)
• Face Shield- A face shield will save your life, if a player is slugging low grade ammo or even some high tier and manages to land a face tap that shield could save your life and allow you to get to cover. One downside to a face shield is it degrades your vision adding smudges and bullet holes if you tank a shot but is well worth it to keep your gear and loot safe
• Armor- High tier armor is your best bet for being able to tank a couple shots and live. It does come at a cost though, your movement speed and turn speed will suffer. While you can tank a mag dump while wearing fort armor you wont be able to maneuver as quickly as someone wearing a gen 4 high mobility. It's a trade off and a consistent game of Mobility vs Survivablity.
  • A quality "in the middle" armor class is anything in class 3, this class allows you to survive a quick couple of shots and possibly win you a quick fight. Another good armor piece is the 6b5-15 this armor piece takes up the vest slot rather than the armor slot but still provides class 3 protection and provides magazine slots/storage. This item will unlikely be looted and has a high insurance return due to the fact that armor cannot be equip with it and its size
• Helmets- High tier helmets such as a Fast MT or Atlyn come at a high cost but they can save your life against that head tap from the back or high shot from someone. Some helmets allow headsets which give a boost to what you can hear around you while reducing grenade explosions and your own gunshot audio. Other helmets give you a severe disadvantage to audio such as the Atlyn, Vulkan, Zsh, and Mashka which all give a hearing reduction which may cause you to not be able to hear subtle sounds around you alerting you to a nearby threat. And remember everything gets through a Kolpak except for sound.
  • The SSH-68 is the perfect low cost high value helmet for all you new comers or people on a budget. It has a high ricochet value while also costing a significantly low cost compared to helmets in the same category, the only downside to this helmet is it exposes most of your face and has no ability for a face shield which means one good shot and you're gone. It also has a high insurance return due to the fact that it has a low "per slot value"
• Headsets- As mentioned above headsets allow you to hear more audio around you possibly alerting you to a nearby threat. Each headset has their own sound quality and no one headset is the "best" it's purely up to the player to decide.
• Gear Fear- we've all had it, even if it was brief we've all felt that fear of bringing in that shiny M4 into your next raid. Getting over this is just finally losing that fear of "well i might lose it," yes you might lose it but you're gonna lose that TT you keep bringing in the only difference is that M4 and armor are going to give you a way higher survival chance along with a higher chance of getting bettemore loot. The roubles it cost to buy isn't a huge purchase in comparison to what you could make off of it.
• Insurance-Insuring gear is extremely worth while, you will spend a fraction of what you spent on the gear in total and with the slight chance of it coming back it's worth it. Do NOT insure on labs, labs has a 0% insurance return, if you die on labs it's lost

• Everyone knows the difficulty of figuring out how to fit that last piece of loot into you bag. It's one of the hardest struggles in Tarkov so here are some tips to reduce that struggle.
• Connecting a Trax 1 and Trax 2 using a bridge mount and adding x2 4" CASV mounts and x2 4" SI mounts, as seen here, allows you to hold x1 sight, x6 tacticals and a fore grip all in a 1x1 slot, perfect for throwing in your secure container and extracting with some nice attachments to use/sell (thank you to u/Spectre1-4 for bringing this to light).
• Use high tier vests that have more internal space then they take up, to take high amounts of loot out of raid (yes these will be 1x2/1x1 slots but the money adds up quickly). Vests such as the Alpha rig, TV rig and Tac-tec all have a higher internal storage than the amount they take up allowing you to bring more small items out of raid if that's your style.
  • Loot what you will use in the next/future raid! If you know you're going to use that IFAK in the next raid take it! It isn't worth tossing it to the side to pick up that 0/18 Fast MT, picking up stuff for next raid will reduce your re-buy cost and quicken your next raid prep time. This all is circumstantial, obviously if an item has a high cost take that over your "next raid" item.
• In-stash Management- purchasing an ammo case/weapon case/ICase/Lucky scav junk-box will give you a significant amount of space to store and sort different types of stuff. The lucky scav junk-box is by far the most worth it as you can stock up early game on later quest items and immediately finish them getting the reward and progressing to the more annoying ones.
  • Removing the pistol grips and magazines of most weapons will reduce the weapon size into a 1x item, (Ex. a 4x2 Ak reduced down to a 4x1)
• Bitcoin- Bitcoin is one of the most profitable things to find in game. Selling these are way more worth it than most trade in's. Trading in a bitcoin for the cash to therapist or selling on the flea market is the best way to turn a quick buck if you're low on cash.

• Scav runs- Take advantage of your scav! That's the easiest way to get free loot and cash when you're low or just want to mess around. You go in with no risk of losing your personal gear and have a huge profit margin.
• Hatchet runs- yes this subreddit bashes on hatchet runners consistently but it is a viable strategy as of now with how secure containers work. Try to keep your movement quick and in cover as you are an easy target for anyone with a gun, this includes scavs and players alike
• Less than 250k rouble kit- For this kit rock an SSH-68 helmet with a 6b5-15 vest and an ADAR with a sight of your choosing, make sure to rock M995 and some meds, an AI-2, CAR medkit and some painkillers are perfect for cheap medical items you can use. The M995 allows you to fight with highly geared players and Scav army, the armor will give you some survivability if you happen to get dropped on. This kit has a high insurance return due to the vest taking up a large amount of inventory space and not allowing you to wear armor with it along with the helmet being low cost, this means players with gear are significantly less likely to take the gear and extract with it.
• The Classic Mosling- yes again this subreddit likes to bash moslings but it is an extremely effective way to get money quickly, the mosin is an extremely effective weapon that can contest most high tier armors with its ammo's pen value. Load this up with LPS/7n1/SNB and a backpack and you can easily one tap most players in the game with a well placed shot.

• Map Links-
  • Customs map
  • Interchange Map (Thank you to u/Lorathor6)
  • Woods Map
  • Shoreline Map (Thank you to u/pelot_rules)
• An extremely good tool for new/old players to use is u/VeriitasGames Tarkov BattleBuddy App found on the IOS app store. If you have an android or want a quick reference guide you could check his Tarkov bible , though it is slightly out of date and will continue to get more and more out of date as time goes on.

Note: All of this information is valid in patch .11